With the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 vying for supremacy, and Nintendo’s Wii U looking for its second wind, I’m optimistic developers and publishers will bring it, in terms of creativity, deeper plots, better graphics, gameplay and motion controls in 2014.

There are a lot of games slated for 2014 release, and while some of the dates aren’t firm, I’m already excited enough by teasers, trailers and first looks to pick a few early, potentially hot ones I’m eager to try.

1. Fantasia: Music Evolved

Yes, I hear your groans already about over-engineered, over-marketed and hyped Disney taking over the world. Give this motion-controlled music rhythm game a chance, though. No release date for the game, but the trailer I watched makes me want to use my hands like light sabers to conduct my virtual orchestra whenever it comes out.

Inspired by and furthering the storyline of Disney’s Fantasia movie, Fantasia: Music Evolved puts you in the world of sorcerer Yen Sid, serving as his apprentice. As Disney describes it, the game “takes players on an interactive and immersive motion-controlled journey through worlds of music and magic.”

In the real world, using your Xbox One (or Xbox 360) Kinect sensor, “you can touch music and transform some of your favorite tracks” through motions and gestures, another short Microsoft video, called “the Evolution of Disney’s Fantasia” explains.

The game being developed by Harmonix, requires the player to move in rhythm with songs from popular artists, unlocking gestures that let you change parts of the songs with different musical-style overlays. You appear as a silhouette who can animate lifeless objects when touching them during your musical composition.

To put it more simply, you’re essentially remixing your own versions of songs by Bruno Mars, Queen, Kimbra and Avicii. I like the ambitious use of the Kinect for something both creative and non-competitive. There is no winning or losing, succeeding or failing at this game.

While I love to compete in console gaming, there simply are not enough family-oriented games or games aimed at young kids, which means very little reason to spend $500 on a new Xbox. If this is an example of what kids can play and is a game that families can play together, then I think I’ll give it a try. And besides, any game that includes Bohemian Rhapsody gets points in my book. Game on!

2. EA Sports UFC

At the other end of the spectrum from creative is this fighting game. UFC has very little redeeming value and is not something you play with your young kids, but I’m awaiting its May 5 release, nonetheless.

I’ve always been a fan of boxing and fighting games. The more realistic, the better. UFC from Electronic Arts is the first fighting simulation released for these eighth-generation consoles, and the gameplay trailers I’ve seen so far suggest you’ll get even more sweat, blood and gravity-defying kicks, punches and takedowns than in previous games on earlier consoles.

I was originally cheesed off when I heard EA was putting development of its next boxing game on hold to focus on its mixed martial arts series, because the Fight Night series is a favorite. I felt as if the last mixed martial arts game put out by EA in 2010 was a jumbled, frame-dropping mess that didn’t even feature UFC-licensed fighters. That’s because developer and publisher THQ had the UFC license. I was lukewarm about THQ’s 2012 UFC fighting game. The controls were awkward and hard to master, and I wasn’t enamored of the graphics.

Now, I’m curious to see how the Fight Night development team does since being turned into the UFC development team, what fighters the game will feature, since EA bought the UFC license from THQ and how a game running on the Ignite engine performs on the PS4 and Xbox One.

The new engine supposedly lets fighters alter their strategy during bouts, instead of making them stick to just one. And EA is making a lot of noise about the game’s grotesque-sounding “full body deformation.” What that means is an added level of realism: Faces will contort, muscles will twist, virtual skin and bone will move when hit or kicked, and your characters will look less waxen. You’ll also see more realistic interaction when two bodies make contact or collide in the game.

Unclear is whether this will just be a flat-out fighting game or, like Fight Night: Champion, whether there will be an attempt at a storyline. Please, make it the former, or do a better job than Champion, which bordered on the inane.

3. Halo

Just in the last day or two, while Microsoft was braying about selling three million Xbox Ones (Sony said right after that it had sold four million PS4s), the console maker and game publisher confirmed the next instalment of Xbox One-exclusive Halo is coming this year.

The problem with chapter games is that you can either get a listless retread or a stellar reboot. This latest Halo will have big shoes to fill. I found Halo 4, which I wrote about in late 2012, a great game. It’s going to take more than just tapping the Xbox One’s graphics engine to make this game a big hit.

Details are scant on the game, and this trailer doesn’t do more than kick up a lot of dust and feature a hooded figure who looks like John-117 with a high-definition basketball for a head, but I’m still intrigued.

Halo is exactly the sort of franchise I want to see on these eighth-generation consoles. First-person shooters have been around for a long time, but the possibilities for highly realistic implosions, explosions, laser cannons and other weapons and actions are going to highlight the Xbox’s strengths. I would expect this game to come out late in 2014, with details to trickle out at E3 and other gaming conferences.

4. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

I hate the Hobbit, but I like the screenshots and descriptions I’ve seen about the forthcoming Monolith Productions game.

Taking place between the time of the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, you’re cast as a ranger named Talion, with wraith-like abilities, whatever those are. This is an open-world adventure game, and at first blush has a sort of Ryse: Son of Rome or Skyrim-like feel to it.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor will use the LithTech 3-D Engine and introduces a system called “Nemesis,” which means characters in the game recall prior encounters they had with the player and alter their behavior toward the player.

Publisher Warner Brothers Interactive hasn’t specified the release date of this third-person adventure, which will be available for both Xbox One and PS4, as well as previous-generation consoles.

5. (Tie) The Evil Within and Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments

Though there’s only the faintest vapor of information about The Evil Within I never rule out a strong performance from a Bethesda or Shinji Mikami/Tango Gameworks game. The gameplay trailer, which features lots of gasping and panting right before a very disgusting torture and killing scene, portrays a very black and violent game.

One of my biggest gripes with previous horror-type games were that they were literally too dark to see clearly. I have plenty of contrast on my HD TVs, so I wonder if it was the previous-generation consoles that couldn’t show me enough gradation of colors to avoid eyestrain. If the trailer is any indication, that problem is gone.

The Evil Within is due out sometime this year for both Xbox One and PS4, along with PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

I’m just a sucker for Sherlock Holmes, which is why I include this Frogwares game on my list. Like the books from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this made-up mystery is split into seven cases that lead to the denouement.

Crimes and Punishments is set in London and its environs and lets Holmes use over a dozen investigative techniques to build up a case against each criminal. The detective will have to make choices, and at the end of each case, decide whether to condemn or absolve the suspect. The choices take gameplay in various direction, and each case has multiple possible endings.

The single-player game will run on the Unreal Engine 3 and come out on the Xbox 360, PS3, PS4 and PC platforms, but not for Xbox One.

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.